Politics: Security Issues Arise Over Clinton’s Email Account

Last week, controversy arose when it was revealed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a person email account for her entire term in office, as opposed to a government issued email address. Specifically, she was using an Internet service designed for her own family. While we all have our own personal email accounts, the reason Clinton’s actions stand out is because government officials operate under federal disclosure law and are required to utilize a government email address. Clinton never even set up an account during her entire time in office, and she also took the time to set up what has been termed a homebrew email system, since it is specific to her family. As the Associated Press has reported, the results of her actions have lead to “impressive control over limiting access to her message archives.”

In the past week, Clinton has remained mostly silent on the matter, but she has turned over more than 55,000 pages of emails. However, she and her staff selected all of the emails turned in. The administration maintains that those emails were the ones actually pertaining to official business. President Obama has reported that he only discovered this through the news, as did the rest of America, though it is possible that the White House knew as early as August of last year when a report was being assembled for a previous investigation. Regardless, the State Department has launched an investigation, but they believe it will take at least a few months to review and release all of her emails from her time as Secretary of State.